When I took charge of the vessel, the timing couldn’t have been tougher. A USPH inspection was on the horizon, and brand auditors from shoreside were scheduled to board on the next voyage. Crew morale was low. Pressure was high. The galley was deep-cleaning, housekeeping was sanitizing every inch, and guest services was firefighting mid-sailing. There was no room, or time, for a traditional classroom session. So, I did what ship life had trained me to do, adapt fast, and make

Every wall I’ve faced taught me one thing. Limits don’t cage you. You cage yourself. The moment you decide to rise, the world adjusts its horizon. #KketanWaghmare #LeadershipMindset #LifeLessons #GrowthJourney #MindfulLeadership #CruiseShipLife #LeadershipDevelopment #BoldMoves #Resilience #PersonalGrowth

Every trainer faces that day. The day when your delivery is flawless, your slides are perfect, but your heart is quietly rebelling. Because what you’re teaching… you don’t believe in. It’s easy to train what you trust. The real test of leadership begins when you’re asked to stand behind something that doesn’t stand for you. I still remember the rollout of a shining “service excellence” program polished with buzzwords and laminated checklists. It looked perfect in a boardroom.

Let’s be honest — most training doesn’t fail in the classroom. It fails after it ends. You can have the perfect deck, engaging activities, and applause at the end and still lose 90% of that impact within a week. That’s not poor facilitation. That’s biology. Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus proved it long before corporate learning existed, the Forgetting Curve shows we lose 70% of new information within 24 hours, and up to 90% within seven days unless it’s reinforced. Every gre

We call it “digital learning.” But sometimes, it feels more like digital drowning. I’ve seen teams log into back-to-back virtual sessions, race through e-modules, and complete every course on the tracker, only to remember almost nothing a week later. It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that their minds are full, not fed. The truth is, somewhere along the way, we started chasing numbers instead of nurturing understanding. Completion rates went up. Reflection went down. And thi

Most sessions start with slides. Mine start with silence. Not because I don’t have things to say, but because I want to listen first. Every room carries its own rhythm, some are eager, others guarded. If you don’t tune in to that rhythm, even the best-designed session will miss its beat. Two decades across ships, resorts, and boardrooms have taught me this: Before people open their minds, they must feel safe enough to show up as themselves. That’s where real learning begins,

I still remember it vividly. A senior leader once told me, “You train people brilliantly, but you don’t always let them see you being trained by life.” At first, I didn’t get it. I thought leadership was about knowing, not noticing. About performing confidence, not practising curiosity. Back then, I was training young, multicultural resort teams in the Maldives, driven, eager, and determined to prove myself. Every session had to be perfect. Slides immaculate. Energy high. Tim

A few months ago, I requested to shadow our HR Director for a week. She’s one of those rare leaders who makes even the toughest conversations feel human. I wasn’t asked to do it. I chose to. Because part of my role involves training onboard managers on HR and leadership policies—and I realized I didn’t just want to teach them, I wanted to understand how they truly work when the stakes are high. On the very first morning, I watched her handle a challenging employee concern. Sh

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AI Won’t Replace L&D Leaders—But L&D Leaders Using AI Might. Every L&D leader I know is asking the same question:  “Should we be using...